Rear projection screens and light diffusers include light filters which provide an optically dispersing medium for transmitting light from an image source on one side of the screen to a viewer on the opposite side of the screen. A basic refractive light filter has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,378,252, which includes a refracting lens system as its principal component. The refracting lens system comprises an array of spherical transparent beads embedded in an opaque binder layer and mounted on a transparent support material. Certain known light filters orient the bead layer toward the image source and the transparent support material toward the viewers. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,738).
The opaque binder layer affixes the beads to the support material, reduces the reflectivity of the filter, and reduces the amount of light transmitted through the interstices between the beads of the lens system. Light from an image is refracted by the beads and dispersed to the viewer through a transmission area of the beads. This transmission area includes an aperture about the point of contact between the bead and support material and the area surrounding this point where the opaque binder layer is too thin to absorb the refracted light.
Rear projection screens and light diffusers are characterized by their ambient light rejection, resolution, gain, and contrast as properties that are determined by the structure and composition of the component materials. For example, in traditional light filters the ambient light rejection and contrast of the light filter are determined largely by the opacity of the binder layer.
However, such traditional light filters still allow a significant amount of ambient light to be reflected from the viewing surface of the filter, decreasing the contrast of the filter. The brightness of traditional beaded screen light filters may be increased by reducing the opacity of the binder layer. However, increasing brightness in this manner would result in reduced contrast for the light filter.